Ahh, the ‘List’.
As a writer, building your email subscriber list may not (yet) have become paramount in your quest for an engaged audience.
Setting up and tweaking your blog, learning the intricate language of Twitter and ensuring your brand is hallmarked for longevity has, thus far, consumed every moment of your free time, right?
But if you spend any time online, and particularly within the marketing community, you will hear this important proverb ad nauseam:
The money is in the list.
The reason?
Building an email subscriber list is one of the best ways to ensure the long term success of your business.
How Does This Apply to You?
Building an email list is arguably the most important element to building a following and getting your message heard. It is the most direct and cost effective way to communicate and engage with your fans and subscribers on a personal level. The bigger your list, the bigger your online marketing asset–and the more interested publishers are.
A large Twitter following, significant traffic to your site, or an active Facebook community is great, but an email list is better. Here’s why:
- You own your list. If Facebook deletes your fan page or Twitter kicks you off, you are effectively kicked out of the conversation. You don’t own the content, and what’s worse, if you don’t have an email list, there is no way to contact your followers to let them know what happened.
- Blogs, websites and RSS readers can disappear. Once you have an email list, you can always stay connected with your audience and keep them informed of what you are doing.
Here are a few more benefits to building and maintaining your email list:
- The conversation via email is personal, direct and private. It provides an excellent medium for staying in touch with your readers.
- It’s cheap, cost effective and everyone online has an email address.
- You will always have a way to communicate with your audience. Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income Blog and Jeff Goins at GoinsWriter both had issues with their sites recently. They were able to communicate to their readers via email and mitigate what might have been significant and expensive consequences.
- Use your email list to broadcast every time you have a new blog post and send a surge of traffic to your site.
- Inform your readers and fans of a book launch, new product or freelance service and provide a link to your sales page.
Here’s a tip: Subscribe to successful authors, marketing gurus, popular self-publishing blogs and so on to get a free marketing lesson in each email you receive.
- Look at the subject line for their email. Did it catch your attention or intrigue you? Did you open the email? Why?
- Analyze the copy used in the body of the email. What was the tone they used? Was it conversational or salesy? Was there a ‘call to action’? (Were you asked to do something, like click on a link? Did you?) How did they get you to take that action?
So, If the Money is in The List, Should I Use My List to Sell?
Use your email list like you use social media–as a way to connect further with your readers and fans. Interact and inform your readers; don’t constantly promote and sell.
Use your own experiences as an email recipient to define what is great content. Spammy, hard selling is out. Remember, as with everything involved in building your writer platform, you are trying to build trust in you and your brand. It only takes one click to unsubscribe, so make it worthwhile for your reader to stay.
If your subscribers trust that your newsletters or updates provide awesome and unique content (and are not just filled with shameless self promotion), your open rate will increase and your subscribers will be happy to spread the word about you–and what you have to offer.
Provide a call to action or link that directs your reader back to your site where you are promoting your book launch, speaking engagements, new post or other events and services. Keep it conversational, engaging and have a single purpose or action.
Think quality, not necessarily quantity, and consider managing your readers expectations by letting them know when and how often to expect emails from you. By attracting relevant pre-engaged visitors (for example, through guest posting, social media and great on-site content) and providing the most useful information you can, you should see a steady rise to your email subscriber list.
If you haven’t yet, I’d love it if you signed up for YWP’s free updates and the Quick Start Guide! Why not try out the process first hand? ๐
Getting Started
One of the biggest oversights many writers make in their book marketing efforts is not starting an email list right from the start. In fact many successful online entrepreneurs have stated that waiting before developing their email lists was a big mistake they made early in their careers–and a costly one.
Don’t wait for perfect. It’s tempting to put off list building until your site is tweaked to perfection, you have a killer “ethical bribe” (more on this below), or you finally have a book to market. It also might seem easier to just work on your social media strategy and leave list building for a later project.
The problem is, that building your email list is just too important to ignore.
Online marketing strategist, Derek Halpern of Social Triggers urges those of us marketing online to stop promoting our social media profiles at the expense of our email list. He notes that “email marketing crushes social media marketing”, and he uses some statistics from his own extensive platform to prove his point.
With this in mind, move building your subscriber list to the forefront of your book marketing efforts and ensure it has a prominent position when developing your author blog or website.
Please note: Some affiliate links are included below. I will earn a small commission if you buy from one of my links, at no extra cost to you. This helps Your Writer Platform continue to provide loads of free, quality content. I appreciate your support!
Step 1: Make an Unforgettable First Impression
- Keeping in mind that “perfect” is an unreachable goal, try to present your brand and author blog in the best possible light. Site design, aesthetics and your branding should be unified and cohesive. Your website should be free of errors (even top bloggers, writers and marketers have the occasional spelling mistake, but do your best to fix any problems with your blog).
- Get a good email service like Aweber which allows you to send email newsletters. I use Aweber and it is by far the best option in my opinion. I am most impressed with the ease of use and level of customer service. Plus you also have the ability to manage several lists from different websites under the same account, if you choose.
- Create a hook or “ethical bribe”. An ethical bribe is a freebie, something (of value) you give away in exchange for your reader’s email address.
Some marketers and bloggers refrain from the free giveaway model because they don’t want people to join their email list just to receive the freebie. They prefer that readers join because the blog resonates with them and leaves them wanting more.
The quality of your subscribers is far more important than the number of subscribers. The more people on your list who are genuinely engaged with what you have to offer, the better. Consider both options and choose what best fits your brand strategy and your views.
Step 2: Create an Awesome Sign Up Form
- Create a sign up form in Aweber. Include the benefits the reader will receive from opting in, like free updates, exclusive tips or promotions, or your free giveaway.
- Ensure your form fits with your overall design, and doesn’t just blend in. Make it pop! It should be very clear to your reader that signing up is an action you wish for them to take.
- Place your form at any point on your site where a visitor is likely to be engaged in your content: minimally, at the top of your sidebar, at the bottom of all your articles, and on your about page.
Set up a page on your blog that contains a link or allows the reader to download your free gift.
Step 3: Have a Dedicated Page for Your Free Gift (optional) and Sign Up
- Create a page that is dedicated to nothing more than obtaining email sign ups. Consider giving your reader a list of reasons why they should sign up. For ideas, you can check out YWP’s Updates page.
Ideas and Tips for Growing Your Email List
Although there are many ways to begin growing an active and engaged following through your email list, here’s a few clever ways that are easy to implement right away:
- Add a sign up prompt at the end of your book. The perfect time to ask a reader to sign up for more is after they have turned the last page of your book, and they are looking for more!
- Include calls-to-action on almost every page of your site. Remember to include email sign up boxes or forms on your homepage, your About page, and after each post.
- Create remarkable email content. Not only will this help keep your subscribers, but it will also increase the likelihood that they will share your emails with their friends, family and colleagues.
- Add a sign up link to your everyday email signature. You can even include a reason to subscribe.
- Include a link in your bio when guest posting. If a reader is engaged enough in your content to read your bio at the end of your article and link back to your site, make sure they are linking directly to your email sign up page!
- Add a sign up tab to your Facebook author page. This way, you can encourage people to sign up right from your Facebook page by adding a custom icon to your mailing list tab.
- Collect emails at offline events. Conferences, meet ups, speaking engagements and other promotional events could provide great opportunities to gather email addresses.
- Have a simple call-to-action at the end of your newsletter. Word-of-mouth is a valuable tool for growing your email list, so try adding “Did you enjoy this email? Maybe your friends would too!” at the end of your email or newsletter.
Building your email subscriber list is a key component in creating and maintaining a ‘captive’ audience. By following some of the tips above, you will grow an accessible, thriving fan base that will be the cornerstone of your successful writing career.
For an even deeper dive into email list building techniques, check out Part 1 of the five part Email List Building Series: The Power of an Email List (And Why It’s a Must).
Did I miss anything? Any more tips for writers trying to build their email subscriber list? Please share in the comments below.
Wow, Kimberley, this is a veritable treasure trove of great tips for list building! Great work and really valuable, too. I’m definitely tweeting this one!
Thanks, Bobbi!
As I’m sure many writers have heard through Twitter et al, Google will stop Google Reader July of this year. I am not sure how many of you have RSS sign up forms. but surely this will affect those ‘feed subscribers’. I have a regular list and when I finally signed up for RSS just a few months prior to Google’s announcement, have had a few more. Luckily, I can contact those subscribers. But concerning your article, this might be something to consider.
Thanks for the great tips!
Great point, Lee! ‘Owning’ your assets is an incredibly important part of your business, because you never know when something you’re ‘leasing’ may vanish. Smart move to contact your feed subscribers now and ensure they are safely in the fold before July. ๐
I haven’t really decided if I’ll build a list for my online portfolio/blog. I guess I should be contemplating about it already since it’s also a chance to find/land potential clients via the list. But using Twitter and LinkedIn as a way to network/build professional connections are doing good so far for me. ๐
I agree, Jovell, that Twitter and LinkedIn are fantastic for building connections and expanding your network.
My concern is that your ultimate access to these connections are defined by an outside party. Plus, setting up your blog to gather contacts is relatively simple, so why not cover all your bases? ๐ Consider asking your LinkedIn contacts and Twitter followers to sign-up for your newsletter/updates. That way you will always have direct and personal contact with them, as well as an easy way to alert them to news about your portfolio/blog.
Thanks for your comment!
Great information, Kimberly.
I think the main takeaway that we all should be paying attention to is what you’ve emphasized very well in the post and the comments: Control and insurance.
As you pointed out regarding Pat and Derek… when the lights go out, how will you communicate with your people? Better to have several modes of communication, and the one you can control more than any of them is your mail list.
Nicely done!
Thanks, Gary! You’ve summarized it perfectly. ๐
Outstanding round-up, Kimberley!
Honestly, I can’t think of anything you’ve missed — and I’ve done the heavy reading on this topic, and more. Love the way your own site’s examples prove that you believe in the advice you’re offering, and I loved the straightforward way you let readers know about your affiliate links in your post.
For anyone who hasn’t done extensive reading on this crucial topic, just bookmark this post — it’s all here!
Thanks, Jim! I’m glad you enjoyed the article! I love posts that are worthy of bookmarkingโI’m flattered you think this is one of them ๐
When I first saw this post on Twitter,I can’t but help myself to RT it and rush to savory it..
Insightful and concise.
Glad I’m here for the very first time
Regards
Mayor
Welcome, Mayor! And thanks for the Retweet ๐ (I’m going to follow you, right now…)
I’m happy to hear you found the post helpful. Cruise around the site and let me know what you think of the rest of the articles!
I’m soooooo! glad I started building my list months before I even had any idea what it could be any good for. I’ve made so many mistakes, that if I’d waited until I needed it, my list would have been useless.
Great tips. I need to work on some of them… especially improving the value of my e-mail content.
Good for you, Amit! You really can’t start too early when building your list.
For me, email content is just as important as your posts. Great care and thought should be put into each one to ensure you’re inbox ‘interruption’ is not just furthering your own agenda. Your goal is to have your readers eager to open mail that comes from youโnot an easy task nowadays ๐
Spot on! Thanks for putting it all in one place.
P.S. Found the FB Like button on the left. Since it wasn’t with the “Share the Love” buttons, I didn’t think it would be somewhere else instead. LIKE LIKE LIKE!!!
Yay! Glad you found it, Diane; sorry if it was confusing ๐
Thanks for sharing!!
Wow, these tips were so fabulous, I started implementing them right away haha. I use MailChimp, but they do have an integration feature for Facebook pages. I also tweaked my sign-up page on my website.
Good for you, Williesha! That’s the way to do it! By implementing a few tips and tricks as they come to you, you can reduce that nasty feeling of overwhelm and panic when learning something new.
Good luck with your freelance writing!
Hi Kimberly,
I have arrived here via Carol’s Monthly Link Party! I love your suggestions regarding building up a list. I have just started to do this and am implementing the different strategies as I go.
It is a real learning curve but it is fantastic when you get direct feedback from the people who sign up to your list. I look forward to learning more in order to increase numbers and create a real sense of community too.
Nice to meet you here ๐
Fantastic to meet you too, Victoria! Glad you stopped by!
Building your list can be a bit of an uphill climb, but it’s so, so important for the health and strength of your platform or business. And like you said, it’s wonderful getting feedback directly from your readers and connecting one on one, while still building a community. ๐
Kimberley,
I particularly like your point that some marketers and bloggers deliberately refrain from the free giveaway model because they donโt want people to join their email list just to receive the freebie.
In other words, if you haven’t yet put together your free content yourself, don’t fret about it. You might not get as many sign-ups in the meantime, but at least those who have signed up have all done so for the right reason.
That’s right, Kevin. Bottom line, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t start building your email list immediately.
If you choose to start without a freebie, you can always add something later. The bonus to waiting, is that you can get great feedback from your initial subscribers as to what your readers will really find valuable.